Dave the Nomad

It is hard to believe that this home of 26,000 people was once a burned out post-industrial site. Today, Hammarby Sjöstad is a famed urban redevelopment site with glorious visionary beginnings in the mid 1990s. Forward thinking Swedish turned the area into a proposed Olympic Village for the 2004 Olympic Games, and after the Olympic bid came and passed, the area was turned into a sustainable neighborhood and model for other countries. I was fortunate enough to talk to Marlena Karlsson, who is the Information Officer at Hammarby’s Visitor Center, the Glaushusett.

Marlena pointed out some of the innovative technologies that went into making Hammarby a success including a vacuum system to send sorted waste to recycling or the nearby combustion plant, where the waste is burned and used for electricity and water purification. This impressive scheme is certainly innovative and new, but even Marlena points out: “It is still a system dependent on us producing waste.” As the Swedish mindset seems to go, this is just another hurdle in the constantly evolving model of sustainability.

During the 1970’s, the USA and Sweden took very different approaches to handling the petroleum crisis. At the time, Sweden was among the most oil dependent countries in the world, and with a bit of wisdom they realized this type of lifestyle was not going to be possible in the future. This spurred a large government-backed district heating initiative, which provided basic water-heating to the citizens of Sweden, and sparked a change in everyday living. Niklas Dahlberg, of the Swedish Institute, pointed out: “…the focus in Sweden is more on ecology and harmony with nature. We are quite unique in that regard… the size of our country really makes this possible.”

Examples of this ecological cycle are also present in Hammarby Sjöstad, from the use of green space to an emphasis on natural building materials, and the use of plants to help minimize the impact of run-off water on the surrounding bodies of water. Moreover, waste water is also treated to produce clean water, and the remaining biosolids are transformed back into energy for the public transportation system, and electricity needs.
This urban model attracts people from the USA, Canada, China, and South America to its doors, and will continue to in the coming years. In an effort to reduce the impact on our future generations and eliminate the current burden we will place on their shoulders for our well-being, the question remains as to who will be the most successful at making their own Hammarbys

Feel free to visit Hammarby Sjöstad’s website here, and click on the English link on the right!